Three out of 10 bloggers in Norway blog about their mental problems.
According to an analysis of 100 Norwegian blogs, conducted by
Univero Fishnet,
the blog has come to substitute for the old diary, not only in the
sense of a serving as a journal, but also as a place to express one's
deepest feelings.
Says analyst
Ole Petter Nyhaug to VG Nett
(Norwegian language), "It's frightening what serious problems young
people give away in their blogs. For eight out of 10, blogging is a
sort of self therapy."
Psychiatrist
Erlend Bugge at
University Hospital of North Norway says to VG Nett that destructive content can have a bad influence on others. The number of youths that
harm themselves
is on the rise in Norway. Bugge points out that several youths
submitted to psychiatric treatment at his ward have expressed a wish to
publish pictures of self harm on the Internet.
Other medical doctors seem to emphasize other aspects of blogging. Says psychiatrist
Simon Wilkinson, "Writing about one's mental problems can sometimes be successful therapy. It is a message without intimacy."
